[TESTING] Kodi v19 builds for Vero 4K / 4K +

[krtinicfix]

I can agree with whysoserious, I don’t usually play h264 4K content and I don’t know if it was a problem before since I played it by accident, but it was stuttering and video was lagging to audio

[fzinken]

@whysoserious

Network: File streamed via gigabit ethernet from Synology NAS using SMB.

@whysoserious

If file is copied to Vero 4k then played, no buffering/stutter is observed.

First step always checking network with iperf3

[How To] Check Network Performance with iperf3

Sometimes it is important to check the network performance between your OSMC Device and the device providing your media (NAS, Server, PC). Especially when you are connected via wireless the throughput variations can harm you viewing experience. This short How To should give you the required information how to install iperf3 and how to run the respective tests. When doing these tests it is suggested to have a simple setup (single switch between Sender and Receiver and avoid other traffic on the …

Secondly as you have a Synology NAS you want to try
Settings → Services → SMBclient → Mitigate MTU issues with SMBv2

[whysoserious]

Thank you, fzinken. I will check it out…

[pkscout]

New problem tonight. It appears I can’t play any 4K content. The files are all on a Windows machine using HanesWIN NFS server with the built in Kodi NFS client. This worked fine under Kodi 18, but now I get about 10 seconds in and then it stutters to a stop, caches for a minute or so (with no indication the cache is actually filing), then runs maybe 45 seconds before doing the same thing again. Regular 1080p content is fine. Here are logs with John Wick 3:

https://paste.osmc.tv/mosekebode

[fzinken]

@pkscout

I can’t play any 4K content.

Normal topics of:

1. Test by playing locally (e.g. USB Stick).
2. Check your network with iperf3

[pkscout]

@fzinken

Normal topics of:

1. Test by playing locally (e.g. USB Stick).
2. Check your network with iperf3

I’ll try in the morning, but more likely I’m just going to reformat the Vero 4K+ and go back to Kodi 18. The only change to my entire config was this upgrade, so I’m just not sure what iperf3 or playing it locally is going to tell us.

[fzinken]

@pkscout

so I’m just not sure what iperf3 or playing it locally is going to tell us

Well:

1. If it also doesn’t play locally without stutter we know it is decoding and not network problem
2. If IPERF3 is giving proper throughput then we know that it must be in the NFS implementation and not an issue of the kernel network driver

[Dedi]

1. Interesting, installing addons fails due to dependencies for me too when using “install”. When choosing “versions” it installs just fine! (or there was just a server side fix as everything I tested now installs fine)

2. I also have a CEC error already on the very first boot of the fresh install. I never got CEC working before anyway, was just a little odd to see it on a very fresh install.

ERROR : OpenConnection - could not opening a connection to the CEC adapter

[dillthedog]

Your box also has flow control switched on:

Apr 17 18:44:11 osmc-lr kernel: meson6-dwmac c9410000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx

To switch it off, see [TESTING] Kodi v19 builds for Vero 4K / 4K + - #62 by dillthedog

[pkscout]

@dillthedog

Your box also has flow control switched on:

Apr 17 18:44:11 osmc-lr kernel: meson6-dwmac c9410000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx

To switch it off, see [TESTING] Kodi v19 builds for Vero 4K / 4K + - #62 by dillthedog

Hmmm, the OS doesn’t seem to think flow control is on:

sudo ethtool -A eth0 rx off tx off
rx unmodified, ignoring
tx unmodified, ignoring
no pause parameters changed, aborting

Here are the results from iperf3 (1762.16.1.5 is my NFS server):

Connecting to host 172.16.1.5, port 5201
[  5] local 172.16.1.3 port 59644 connected to 172.16.1.5 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec   112 MBytes   942 Mbits/sec    1    210 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec   108 MBytes   903 Mbits/sec    0    210 KBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec   112 MBytes   936 Mbits/sec    1    221 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec   111 MBytes   935 Mbits/sec    0    221 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec   108 MBytes   907 Mbits/sec   11    155 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec   112 MBytes   940 Mbits/sec    0    211 KBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec   111 MBytes   934 Mbits/sec    0    211 KBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec   113 MBytes   944 Mbits/sec    0    211 KBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec   112 MBytes   939 Mbits/sec    0    211 KBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec   112 MBytes   935 Mbits/sec    1    212 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   931 Mbits/sec   14             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   931 Mbits/sec                  receiver

I don’t have a USB stick or spare drive large enough for the 60gb movie, so I couldn’t test a local run. I did install autofs, setup a mount, and then view the movie from the File Manager. That played fine. So I added a path substitution from nfs://172.16.1.5 to /mnt. I know you all have always recommended fstab for network mounts, but I’ve never needed it until now. Oddly, Kodi on my Mac uses the Kodi NFS client and plays the same movie with no problem. But this ended up being a relatively easy fix, so I might just call it the resolution.

[grahamh]

@simenh1

With this test build is it possible to have the Vero 4K+ tonemap HDR content even on a HDR supported display? I have an older Sony HDR tv that does not display HDR very well

This implies the Sony tonemapping isn’t working as it should. What model is it?

AIUI, MadVR will be outputting an SDR signal unless you have some fancy video card that does HDR. How do you find our new tonecurve scheme looks vs your MadVR setup?

HDR-HDR tonemapping is something we are considering, but we haven’t decided whether to take the approach of ‘loading custom tonemaps’ or adding some controls for users to play with.

[fzinken]

@pkscout

Here are the results from iperf3 (1762.16.1.5 is my NFS server):

Looks good, while to test the download (play movie) direction you would need to add a -R to the iperf3 command.

[vOlvOx]

Just wanted to share my experience so far:

1. CEC seems to do weired things. In my setup (Vero4k → HDMI cable → TV (LG OLED C7D) → HDMI Cable (ARC) → Speaker (Nubert) it forces the ARC Audio to fail from time to time (so it changes from external Speaker to internal TV speaker and vice versa).
   This was not the case with the previous stable Build. My Speaker with the ARC Setup works fine if i disconnect the HDMI cable from Vero4k or if i disable the CEC module. So my guess is, that it’s related to it.

2. Airplay Audio isn’t working (no sound on optical or hdmi)

3. (not Kodi related but:) Raspotify 0.12/0.16 service isn’t working properly. The daemon fails to start. ((code=killed, signal=ILL))

[simenh1]

Sorry i may have worded this wrong.

I meant HDR to SDR tonemapping not HDR to HDR.
My tv has limited brightness and not the best local dimming causing me to prefer watching SDR movies.
I have set madVR to output HDR movies as SDR to my HDR display. I have not found a way with Kodi on the Vero4K to output HDR content as SDR on an HDR enabled display.

[dillthedog]

@pkscout

Hmmm, the OS doesn’t seem to think flow control is on:

sudo ethtool -A eth0 rx off tx off
rx unmodified, ignoring
tx unmodified, ignoring
no pause parameters changed, aborting

Indeed. I only have a (non-plus) Vero4K and the system journal shows flow control off. Ethtool also seems to confirm that it’s not supported on my device: Supported pause frame use: No

As to why your system journal is showing flow control tx/rx, that must be a question for @sam_nazarko

[piejanssens]

Problem. Just completed the update and the db migration. I can see the OSMC background with the logo top left. Not a single menu option. If I manually set the skin to skin.estuary via guisettings.xml it gets reset to skin.osmc on start.

Logs: 2021-04-18 13:52:24.341 T:2659 INFO <general>: ----------------------------- - Pastebin.com

[iainf]

Upgrade seemed to go fine, but when the GUI came up, it reported that there were incompatible addons but did not list anything. A look at kodi.log showed that the culprit was metadata.themoviedb.python (The Movie Database Python) which was stuck at version 1.3.2, and which used python2. Not sure why this was not reported in the GUI, although it was installed alongside the xml scraper.

[grahamh]

@simenh1

I have not found a way with Kodi on the Vero4K to output HDR content as SDR on an HDR enabled display.

IIRC there is a command line option that can disable HDR passthrough. I’ll have a look for it.

[Scidd0w]

I upgraded my 4k+ from standard 2020.11-1 build without any big issues.
I have the standard osmc skin installed and only one addon (youtube) all upgraded ok and working fine. I tried some videos on my lg oled connected tv and up until now all played ok. 4k, HDR, SDR, remux etc both local on Hd and via NFS shares. Also CEC seems to work correctly in my setup (vero 4k+, oled55c7v, denon x1400h).

2 “issues” encountered:

1. @ 1st start Kodi told some add-ons were disabled. It seemed to also include skin helper addons I think are/were installed by the standard osmc skin
2. I had to go into audio settings and disable and reenable all the passthrough settings in Kodi before DTS, truehd, dts-hd, etc worked again. Before it was outputting multi pcm.